You may remember this article I wrote the other day. I suggested that one of the possible reasons for the under performance of the show, was the huge budget that was made available for it’s pilot episode. I cited the pilot’s financial clout as ’possibly’ reducing the importance that the creators placed on bulding a solid foundation – the writing. Whilst I’m not saying the budget was definitely to blame, I do believe that it’s ‘possible’ for the ‘financial comfort’ to have made ‘the powers that be’ complacent in regards to the overall planning of the show. I think that this is a reasonable suggestion, although had the first eight episodes been a massive success then no-one would be criticising the writing or the huge outlay on one initial episode. That’s to be expected – however, the first eight episodes were not up to the standard expected, and as a result I think it’s only right that we ask why the writing was so bad..surely it’s not because the show had bad writers? Surely there are other contributing factors?

With that in mind, the i09.com blog responded to my post by citing a different reason for the failure of BW:

Personally, I don’t think that money was the problem with the show, and almost all the troubles can be traced back to the fact that no-one involved with it seemed to know what kind of show they wanted to make. Was it dark updating of the original? Buffy with robot parts? Alias without interesting bad guys? The show seemed to change its mind episode-to-episode, and sometimes even within each 44-minute chunk. Play fantasy TV exec here, kids: If the show does return, what needs to be changed to make it work, and how would you do it?

I would agree that the creators seemed not to know what show they wanted to make - I suggested a few months ago that the show needed to find it’s identity. However I would argue that having such a huge amount of money guaranteed for the pilot episode, ‘perhaps’ contributedto the shows lack of identity. It’s almost as if they spent more time worrying how to spend NBC’s money and less time worrying how to get the most out of each line, each story arc and each character. I could be wrong, but I think that the pilot episode was one of the best of the eight episodes..and it had $10-14 million to finance it. The rest of the episodes (with one or two exceptions) were pretty bad..which would suggest to me that the show delivers best when it has financial clout to realise the imaginings of the creators, but struggles when the money factor is removed.

Again, I could be wrong and I’m not saying that io9.com are ‘wrong’ in their views..I’m simply saying that there must be a contributing factor as to why the writing and identity of the show was so weak. We know why the first eight episodes were weak: The writing.  I’m trying to establish possible reasons for why the ‘writing itself’ was weak.

The readers over at io9.com aren’t holding back their views on the show:

Erackman writes:-

“It’s Alias with Bionics but not nearly as interesting or well-written”. That is how I describe the show to anyone that has not seen it. If the show had any hope of surviving, the writer strike probably killed it. I was willing to give it some time but now, with all the time that has passed, I will probably just skip it altogether now.

I don’t know what I was expecting from the show but I guess I thought the bionics would be more… well bionic. The premise of bionic body parts seemed like it would be more intriguing than it is and more relevant.

Ryan. H writes:

“I thought one of the biggest problems with it was that it couldn’t decide on it’s format. There was a strange mix of format between 90’s style episode-of-the-week and the more serial style that shows like Lost, Heroes and BSG use.”

Pretty scathing. I hope NBC arelistening to such views, but that they do not fold the show because of such views. Let’s not forget that a hell of a lot of people still want this show to do well. This show shouldn’t be cancelled, it has a ready made fan-base, all we need is a good show. It would be a major dent in David Eick’s reputation if he manages to drop the ball on this one – but NBC need to give him, or whoever is in charge these days, another stab at it. The premise is just too good to waste!

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Incidentally, the LOST pilot cost $10mil, but the writing is also awesome. Seriously, JJ Abrams, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof know how to make great TV. Over to you BW!